Why can't I move my folder from iCloud Drive to my hard drive?

I'm trying to copy 28 MB of data from iCloud to my hard drive, but it says there isn't enough free space.


User uploaded file


User uploaded file


But it shows that I have plenty of space.


User uploaded file


What is going on and what should I do?

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Aug 1, 2018 8:19 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2018 8:51 AM

Some things to try.


In the absence of more information and assuming you attempted to copy to different local drives I would initially suspect the problem to be network/iCloud related. Especially since you recently ran out of space.


However, worth covering all basis.


  1. Make sure you are not moving around files still in sync process, and you have enough space in iCloud for all the uploads you enabled.
  2. Make absolutely sure local target is not located somewhere that sync back to iCloud
  3. Make sure you copy and not move the files (default is move). You can delete later.
  4. Try do download through Safari (hopefully you have a flat file structure as one cannot download folders through the browser).
  5. There are various reports and discussions of High Sierra especially on APFS drives reporting free disc space differently depending on which tools you use. Compare the free space reported in Disc Utility with what is reported in System Report -> Storage, and Terminal "df -h" command.
  6. Rebuild Spotlight Index. How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
  7. Empty trash
  8. If you have multiple backup discs, make all backups are up to date. Also check for snapshots using tmutil, flatten if needed. https://ppolyzos.com/2017/10/20/how-to-manually-delete-local-snapshots-from-time -machines-backups/
  9. Check S.M.A.R.T health status of disk.
19 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 3, 2018 8:51 AM in response to ShinehahGnolaum

Some things to try.


In the absence of more information and assuming you attempted to copy to different local drives I would initially suspect the problem to be network/iCloud related. Especially since you recently ran out of space.


However, worth covering all basis.


  1. Make sure you are not moving around files still in sync process, and you have enough space in iCloud for all the uploads you enabled.
  2. Make absolutely sure local target is not located somewhere that sync back to iCloud
  3. Make sure you copy and not move the files (default is move). You can delete later.
  4. Try do download through Safari (hopefully you have a flat file structure as one cannot download folders through the browser).
  5. There are various reports and discussions of High Sierra especially on APFS drives reporting free disc space differently depending on which tools you use. Compare the free space reported in Disc Utility with what is reported in System Report -> Storage, and Terminal "df -h" command.
  6. Rebuild Spotlight Index. How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
  7. Empty trash
  8. If you have multiple backup discs, make all backups are up to date. Also check for snapshots using tmutil, flatten if needed. https://ppolyzos.com/2017/10/20/how-to-manually-delete-local-snapshots-from-time -machines-backups/
  9. Check S.M.A.R.T health status of disk.

Aug 3, 2018 7:22 AM in response to ShinehahGnolaum

Thanks for replying, ShinehahGnolaum, and that additional info, it really helps! Since it looks like you're using the feature to store your Desktop and Documents folders of your Mac in iCloud Drive, try moving this folder to a different folder, like your external hard drive or your Home folder, as the error message seems to be related to iCloud storage, not local storage on your Mac. Here is more info to help explain this:


Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive


Have a great day and thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

Aug 3, 2018 4:43 PM in response to ShinehahGnolaum

Ok, given the free space checks all indicate enough space. The "100%" items you see in df is normal and not real disk space. You wanted to confirm /dev/disk0s2 and /dev/disk1s2 and they look good, even if they report different free space, there is plenty.


yes, I meant icloud.com to download through Safari.
This directories you see in iCloud, being the root, do seem out of place. Maybe some accidental drop of files from some cache or directory? I recall seen similar directory names in a .Spotlight cache hierarch. Seen similar directory names under the InstallShield directories in MS Windows.
Other than the app specific directories like Automator, Keynote, etc, the only content in root I see on my root iCloud drive is what I put there.


I think safe to move on and focus on that sync and what is going on with iCloud.


To explain why I suggest copy rather than move. Apologies if you know this already, I don't your skill level. Usually a move action between different filesystems is actually simply a copy + delete action performed by the tool you use. Some problems may occur with the "delete" part (space overheads, permissions, etc). That is why first thing with weird move issues I do is seperate the two actions into a manual actions of copy and delete.


That directory you are trying to copy looks like a lot of files for only a few MB of data. Is that normal for XCode?


I don't know the inner working of iCloud well enough to comment much there but if this was between two local disks I would immediately suspect the two scenarios I personally ran into in the past.


  1. Circular symbolic links may cause a loop resulting in a endless loop of file system navigation.
  2. Trying to copy files from a Time Machine backup with tools other than TM. As TM use a special kind of hard link on HFS+ partitions regular tools will result in significant duplication.


If you have good backups of your data I would at this point maybe turn off as much iCloud as I can, let things settle, clean up iCloud first and then one-by-on enable iCloud sync again making sure enough space.

Aug 2, 2018 5:54 PM in response to CarlAVII

I followed the instructions to do First Aid on my hard disks. There were no problems. I think the problem was with the iCloud Drive. I noticed the folder I was trying to move to the local drive has this icon beside it that looks like a cloud with a down arrow in the middle:

User uploaded file

When I click on the icon, I see this dialog box:

User uploaded file

But when I check iCloud, it shows there is plenty of space in it:

User uploaded file

Over 1 GB.


What is the problem and what should I do?


I should mention that I had received a warning from Apple by email saying that I was running out of space on my iCloud Drive, but I deleted files on my iCloud Drive afterwards. I don't know if that matters.

Aug 3, 2018 8:10 AM in response to chris_g1

It looks like the folders with that icon beside it User uploaded file are on your iCloud servers and when I try to download them I'm getting a message saying I don't have enough free space. But I have enough free space. I have over 1 GB of free space. I shouldn't need to move my Documents and Desktop to my local storage instead of my iCloud Drive. Am I right? Could you clarify the situation for me?

Aug 3, 2018 8:23 AM in response to chris_g1

I also notice that next to the iCloud Drive folder, there is an icon that seems to indicate an incomplete progress:


User uploaded file


I seem to recall that usually I see the circle make a complete revolution to show that iCloud has completed updating, if I understand it correctly. Could it be that it's not completely updating because 1 GB is not enough to completely update? Surely it would download as much as it could before stopping while leaving so much space unused. Is there a setting on your end that was triggered that needs to be reset?

Aug 3, 2018 8:58 AM in response to J from Bris

I was deliberately trying to move the folder. When I try to copy instead of move, I see the image of the folder I'm trying to copy in the destination pane in Finder:


User uploaded file


That's the folder I'm trying to copy: "EmailToText 02" to the folder called "Xcode backups" in the left pane of Finder.


I get a dialog box:


User uploaded file


It doesn't ever finish copying. It doesn't copy at all.

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Why can't I move my folder from iCloud Drive to my hard drive?

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